Ministry urges public institutions to go digital

The Civil Service Ministry yesterday urged public institutions to go digital to provide more efficient and timely services to the public.

The ministry, in collaboration with UNDP, yesterday launched the National Conference on Public Sector in the Digital Era to seek innovative ways to improve services.

The conference brings together experts and civil servants from across the region to discuss public sector innovation.

Yuk Bunna, a secretary of state at the ministry, yesterday said that the ministry encourages public institutions to provide services by using digital technology.

“We usually take two months to collect data or complaints from the residents through letters but if we go digital we can do this within two hours,” he said.

Mr Bunna said that previously, social interactions were between humans and humans but now they involve humans and machines.

“Using technology is a public sector reform and we must switch to smart and digital governance,” he said. “This way people will get public services more effectively and on time.”

According to a UNDP press statement yesterday, the Fourth Industrial Revolution that is transforming Asia and the Pacific is raising expectations for more innovative and timely public services.

It added that in its Fourth Rectangular Strategy (2019-2023), the government has clearly laid out the significance of improved human resources and technological innovation as key strengths for Cambodia to better deal with growing e-governance opportunities.

The statement also said that through the Cambodian National Program for Public Administration Reform, the government has clearly defined its vision for administrative reform as being “to transform the public administration into an effective public service provider and a reliable partner towards serving people better”.

“These drivers are indispensable for Cambodia to become more responsive, efficient and effective in delivering its public services,” Civil Service Minister Pech Bunthin said at the conference yesterday.

Nick Beresford, UNDP representative, yesterday stressed that “when new ideas come from the civil servants themselves, they are much more likely to catch on and produce real change.”

“Our job is not to dictate the best practice but to help ministries open up creative spaces so civil servants can get closer to the citizens they serve and test out their own solutions,” he added.

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